1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to techniques for removing from scanned film dates and/or missing data regions that can be the result of spots, scratches or folds on the film. The techniques of the present invention, which may be implemented in an apparatus and/or as methods, are particularly designed to handle larger regions of missing data, such as “thick” scratches. The invention also relates to programs of instructions for directing an apparatus or machine to carry out these techniques.
2. Description of the Related Art
Current methods for removing scratches from scanned film are designed for thin scratches which are only a few pixels wide. The removal of these artifacts typically involve either median or mean filtering. However, there are drawbacks with both of these methods when larger missing data regions are involved. The problem is that a median filter is sensitive only to the color histograms of pixels in a neighborhood, not to the spatial distribution of these pixels. Therefore, application of a median filter on a larger region of missing data tends to produce “blocky” artifacts. Mean filtering, on the other hand, tends to blur regions and boundaries in the process of attempting to remove larger missing data regions.